Mesothelioma, Other Cancers Higher Among Firefighters
A new study involving 30,000 firefighters strengthens the scientific evidence for a relation between firefighting and cancer, the researchers said.
The findings by NIOSH researchers and colleagues were reported online Oct. 14 by the peer-reviewed journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The article is available at http://oem.bmj.com/content/early/2013/10/14/oemed-2013-101662.full. The researchers found that cancers of the respiratory, digestive, and urinary systems accounted mostly for the higher rates of cancer in the study population. The firefighters had a rate of mesothelioma two times greater than the rate in the U.S. population as a whole. The researchers said it was likely that the findings were associated with exposure to asbestos, and NIOSH noted this is the first study ever to identify an excess of mesothelioma in U.S. firefighters. The study analyzed cancers and cancer deaths through 2009 among 29,993 firefighters from the Chicago,... |
